


Visit to the Shrieking Shack

by Dunuelos



Series: Harry Potter, Lone Traveler [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 15:56:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20260684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dunuelos/pseuds/Dunuelos
Summary: Traveler meets Harry, Third Year





	Visit to the Shrieking Shack

He came alert with a start, to find himself on a messy room. He looked around wondering where he now. The dirty room looked very familiar.

As he looked around the room, he saw cobwebs and dust covering a dirty, musty bed and other furniture. The place didn't look like it had a regular tenant for years. After a moment, he recognized the place.

* * *

"HE WAS THEIR FRIEND! AND HE BETRAYED THEM!" Harry was shouting toward the distance, facing the haunted old shack. Ron and Hermione were looking on with sympathy, not really knowing what to say. How do you comfort your best friend who was just told that his parents' best friend betrayed them in the worst possible way?

It was then that the trio noticed a blue light coming through the curtains of the Shrieking Shack. Even Harry, agonized with betrayal and emotional pain, paused at the sight.

The Shrieking Shack was supposed to be the most haunted structure in England – or so the rumors stated. However, Harry was feeling reckless. Besides, it's not as though a ghost could hurt them, right?

Harry climbed the short fence which separated the property off from the rest of the village. He walked carefully through the snow. Hermione and Ron at first tried to stop him, but Hermione was intrigued herself. Ron, of course, didn't want to seem terrified, though he was. It wasn't as terrifying as meeting Aragog and his children, but still ….

Finally the trio reached the dilapidated structure. They moved around to the door and cautiously opened it.

In the other room, the Traveler heard the front door creaking. He focused his attention, after glancing outside and seeing the winter snow outside. He waited for a moment. Suddenly the door to the room he was in slowly opened, with a wand passed through it followed by three nervous looking teenagers.

"Welcome to the Shrieking Shack. Please come in."

His voice startled the trio; Ron looked ready to bolt, Hermione was clutching his coat holding him there, and a younger Harry Potter stood his ground, facing the unexpected person in front of them.

They cautiously moved forward. When the three spied the features of the man in the room, they were shocked. Harry and Hermione stared nervously between Harry and the man. They had the same features, even down to the scar!

"I imagine you have questions."

"Who are you?" Harry asked, with a note of menace.

"I, as a way of explaining, am an alternate version of you."

The trio was gobsmacked. "I don't understand. How did you get here? And why do you look older?"

A nervous Hermione asked, "Did you come back in time?" Harry smiled inwardly for a moment; this was the year that Hermione was using the time turner, and was nervous about time paradoxes.

"No. I am here due to an unexpected failure in a spell I was attempting, but no matter. Harry, from the look on your face I would say you just received a grievous shock."

"If you're me, you know what it is."

"I do. But you don't have all of the information." Harry remembered this day. He himself had heard of his Godfather's alleged duplicity and, after his friends had gotten him out from underneath the table, he had somehow gotten back to Hogwarts. Apparently, this reality had things slightly different.

At the older Harry's statement, Hermione wanted to ask; the warnings against time turners was too fresh in her mind at the moment.

"What do you mean by 'you don't have all of the information'?"

"Well, events later in my third year upended the terrible news that I heard when I snuck out to Hogsmead the day I got my father's map from Gred and Forge." At the two humorous names, the trio relaxed. "One thing you should remember, Harry, is that not all is as it seams."

Harry, not wanting to believe that his father's friend would betray his parents so cruelly, began to have hope. His hatred, so recently goaded by the conversation he heard in Rosemerta's Pub, began to ebb at this simple reminder. He should know this, after all of the rumors and Fudge's attempt at "doing something" from last year, he realized that without further information, he really didn't know for himself.

"I can see you're starting to think – that's a good thing. Something your friend Hermione here has been trying to teach you for a bit, yes?" Hermione blushed a bit at that, even as Harry looked sheepish. Ron still looked lost. "Look, I have a few questions for you. Would any of you betray the others if someone offered you more power or protection?" Harry looked indignant. "Imagine how close you are; your father and godfather were just as close. If you're so curious, ask for a trial transcript and see for yourself what happened. It was your parents. I'm sure the Director of Magical Law Enforcement would listen if you asked." Harry decided then that he would be owling someone that very night.

"Oh, and Ron. You've been upset this year over a certain pet, am I right?" Ron looked at Hermione with a little guilt and a little pugnaciousness mixed together. "If the rat is so important to you get a cage for it. Maybe you should show the cage to your Defense Teacher and ask how it could be more secure? He has a bit of experience with rats and things." Ron shrugged.

"Now, you might want to get back to Hogwarts soon; you wouldn't want anyone to notice you being gone now right?" Harry nodded at the trio. "Might I suggest that passage right there? There's a knot just inside the door under the Willow that will calm it down." And he winked at them.

At the door, as the three moved from this bizarre encounter, Hermione paused. The other Harry had advice for the other two, but what about her? "Um, Sir?" She didn't know what to call the obviously older version of her friend. "Do you have any advice for me?" The other two stopped and looked back.

Harry thought about it for a moment. "I have an early Christmas present for you. The trust of your friends is more important to them than even their lives. Before you risk either, talk to them." Hermione was confused. "It's just some life-experience advice from an old traveler." Harry smiled at them once more, before a pulsing blue light flashed in front of them, with a note of phoenix song in the air. After they blinked their eyes, the strange Harry was gone.

* * *

Harry pondered if he had done enough. The fact that he had been moved from the reality at that juncture showed that he had accomplished what he needed to.

He never saw the investigation started by Amelia Bones when she was asked for the transcript and none was found, nor hear about the reaction of Remus Lupin when he was presented a caged Peter Pettigrew shortly after the New Year. He would never see the conversation that Hermione had with Harry before they both took his new Firebolt to McGonagall. Hermione thanked the other Harry in her heart everyday for saving her friendship with her two best friends in the world.


End file.
